The dominance of London and the surrounding region in the national economy and in many aspects of our cultural life, there is an ever-increasing media and political focus on areas outside the South East as recognition grows of the importance of their role in the UK as a whole. And this could have a profound impact on Britain's future.

There is a consensus in the medical community and among the major charities in this area. There is overwhelming and terrifying evidence, which is increasing every year. So we are all calling on the UK Government, ahead of the UK Supreme Court ruling on this issue next month..

Prime minister David Cameron - First Lord of the Treasury - may be the government's PR man by background, but the Budget, the most high stakes public relations event in the politics calendar, is entrusted to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Long term health conditions such as dementia, cancer and depression affect 15 million of us in the UK today, making up the bulk of increasing demand on the NHS. With our most cherished institution struggling to meet the costs, it is clear we need to find new and different ways of preventing and managing ill health.

As much as our society is digital, it is every bit as cynical. The next decade will make great strides forward for communication, health, business and sport, but let it also be the decade that politics repairs its broken reputation. Nobody knows what will pick politics up from the gutter, but online voting might just be a start.

Ofsted has received criticism from two committees of MPs this week, who have slammed its failure to highlight the Rotherham child sex abuse scandal and the 'Trojan Horse' plot in Birmingham schools, after allegations of attempted takeovers by individuals looking to impose a view of radical Islam on the students.

This is not the first time such allegations have surfaced; there have been other examples, and, whilst this is not the lone cause of radicalisation, such behaviour can play a part in that journey. The extent of this influence is open to debate on a case by case basis.

Yesterday Education Secretary Nicky Morgan stated that being academic in the modern world simply isn't enough, and that too narrow a focus was given to passing exams, when more time should be spent developing the grit and resilience young people will do frequently need in life. This is a message I wholeheartedly agree with, but it is a little late in coming.

When we recently contacted over 100 governments with questions on their actions on business and human rights, more than a dozen said that they are considering or developing a National Action Plan, including Brazil, Germany and the US.

This is not a series of individual failures. This is a structural economic failure which is resulting in acute human misery and frustration. It is limiting our prospects for sustained economic growth. It is a failure of politics and government.

As the May general election looms, housing remains a key issue over which the different political parties will scrap it out until the polls close. Of course they'll all promise the earth, offering to solve the UK's housing shortage with inflated numbers of how many houses they expect to build, but in reality how many of these much needed new homes will ever get off the ground?

I have a dream. It involves climate negotiators. They are bleary-eyed, exhausted, but happy. Nestled inside some grey building in the heart of Paris, they are weeping with relief at the result of all-night negotiations that leave climate campaigners like me elated, and the carbon-fuel lobbyists staring into the abyss, desolated.

Tristram Hunt is firing the latest shots in one of the slowest running political gunfights ever conducted. Early shots were fired by John Major's government in the early 1990s when they privatised the careers service.

Engineering educators must utilise young peoples' passion, interest, and reach out, to their dreams by means of diversifying and inspiring engineering to the next generation of engineers and scientists.

Inequality is everywhere at the moment. Scarcely a day goes by without a new take on an age-old story. Inevitably, much of this has focused around money - the super rich, multinationals, bonuses, the wage gap, housing, Swiss bank accounts, tax - all have been under the media spotlight in articles that generate anger and jealousy in equal measure.

That people's outcomes in life shouldn't be determined by their income, gender, age, race, ethnicity, disability or geography is a truly transformative notion that could shift the course of global development - for good. But it's also a tall order.

Not only are developers ruining London for the people who actually live here, the development of HS2 is going to destroy some of Britain's most idyllic countryside, all for a train line that many will not be able to afford to travel on.

I don't want to live in a world where Robert Downey Jr going grocery shopping is news, and I'm pretty sure Robert Downey Jr doesn't either. In fact I know he doesn't because he openly mocked the story on his own Facebook page, thus ensuring the story was reposted 1500 times in less than an hour. It's now over the 6,600 mark in shares